Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/27

THE PLYMOUTH DISTRICT 21 word, and Edgcumbe had to surrender in 1645. The peaceful memories of the spot arc more in accord with its beauty than those of discord and bloodshed ; that beauty, and the number of its distinguished visitors, had made it famous throughout Europe. The place has been noted for its hospitality and for its many guests, from the days of Cosmo de' Medici to those of our late King. During his stay at Torquay, after the close of the Franco-German War, the Emperor Napoleon III. came hither with his son ; and it was only two days later that the Crown Prince of Prussia, afterwards the beloved Emperor Frederick, was here with his wife and sons, one of whom, the Kaiser, now looms so large in the imagination of Europe. But art has its associa- tions with this spot, even more interesting than those of royalty. The elder Vandevelde is supposed to have been here, and to have painted his " Royal Charles " as the guest of Sir Richard Edgcumbe ; this and other paintings of his are preserved among the art treasures. A little more certainty attaches to the visits of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was the son of the headmaster of Plympton School — a school that can boast con- nection with three other famous artists : Northcote, Eastlake, and Haydon ; and as a boy young Reynolds became a frequent companion of the second Lord Edgcumbe, then a lad of about his own age. The two between them painted a portrait of Thomas Smart, Vicar of Maker, who was the young Edgcumbe's tutor. The picture was executed on a piece of sailcloth, in a boathouse at Cremyll. It is probable that the portrait was done rather with mischievous than artistic intent — a boy's picture of his tutor is not likely to be